Aid community sets up camps in north

The humanitarian situation in northern Afghanistan has reached crisis point, prompting the UN and the wider aid community to step up assistance to existing displacement camps and establish new ones in the northern region.

Previously, the move to establish large centralised camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) was discouraged by the humanitarian community in a bid to keep Afghans in their place of origin. However, with the current estimate of 150,000 IDPs expected to continue to rise, camps were deemed necessary. Many IDPs have been hosted by local families, who are no longer able to cope themselves, and with settlements scattered over large areas, any formal assistance has been difficult.

“It was initially determined that it was best to leave people in their homes, where it was felt they could best survive,” Stephanie Bunker, spokeswoman for the UN Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs in Afghanistan, told IRIN on Friday. “Now, however, there has been more population movement, and the local people who have been helping the displaced have become more impoverished and their assets depleted,” Bunker said. While camps were not the “ideal option”, from a logistical point of view they made humanitarian assistance easier, Antonio Donini, UN Deputy Coordinator, told IRIN.

The aid community in the north is helping some families move into more structured camps, which will initially be set up near Mazar-e Sharif in Balkh Province, and in Baghlan Province. In each location, 5,000 families will be accommodated in camps, supported by the relief community and local authorities. Various agencies will take responsibility for water, sanitation, health, nutrition, food, shelter, education, security, and necessary non-food items. “Aid workers will assess the population and then selectively filter the most needy to the camps,” Bunker said.

While WFP is currently distributing 4,500 mt of food each month in the north, an amount that is expected to increase to 6,500 mt, aid efforts are not enough. The UN says shortages of non-food items, cash, and staff are particularly acute. Desperate families have given up their young daughters at greatly reduced bride prices, and have been sending young men outside the country to find work. In some areas, malnutrition rates are on the rise, as are diseases associated with poor nutrition, such as scurvy.

Within the last five weeks, tens of thousands of people have entered Mazar-e Sharif city. Since summer 2000, over one million Afghans have left their homes. Over 700,000 of them are internally displaced in Afghanistan. In the course of 2001, the United Nations believes that the number of internally displaced Afghans will top one million.

“More people are arriving from affected areas. Unless donors step up assistance, the situation of IDPs will become even more desperate,” Donini warned.